Saturday was odd for me.

I went to Sarah’s house at 2pm, where we played a game of War of the Ring for 2-1/2 hours or so. After that, I hung around until 10pm, chatting with Dave, Daniel and Sarah about the Ulek campaign, how much fun we were having with D&D at the moment (they keep finding cool things in new Wizards books to use), how unappreciated Magic of Incarnum is, and how one of the players is slightly annoying, and watching a bit of Buffy.

Then I had a solo game of Runebound as I waited for the World Cup Final to start. Eventually it did… except it didn’t because it was raining.

Hmm. I’m tired. It’s 1am. I set my alarm for 2am, and fall asleep.

Woke up at 2am. Hmm. Still raining. Set my alarm for 2.40am. Fall asleep again.

Woke up again. Hmm. They’ve started playing! Cool. Watch a little, listen a lot to the ABC radio coverage. Switch between watching and listening, as it’s been dark for a few days and our solar-powered batteries are running low, so the TV might cut out.

Gilchrist played amazingly. What a player! Couldn’t believe that Hayden wasn’t able to do so after being the form player of the tournament. In fact, I think the pitch was harder to bat on than might have been apparent… but Gilchrist was just being amazing.

The Australian score was really, really good, but I was worried that it wouldn’t be enough.

It was. Mind you, there was a time when Jayasuriya and Sangakkara were hitting it around in the second power-play that I was really getting concerned. Go Hogg!

Sri Lanka had the worst of the conditions, though. That ball from Clarke that bowled
Jayasuriya just didn’t bounce!

When we got to the first end of the game… relief. An anti-climax in a lot of ways (although Gilchrist catching Arnold off McGrath’s bowling was great), but I’ll take it. Then the complete debacle of the umpires insisting that the game continue for 3 more overs (probably on the next day). Stupidity personified. I really hope that none of them officiate in a game again: they’re not good enough.

Didn’t see the presentations – the ABC had commitments elsewhere (stupid “Australia all over”) and couldn’t broadcast them. Didn’t matter. I needed some real sleep.

Ian Chappell had it right: “Malcolm [Speed] has been living in Dubai for too long. As I’ve said before, they’ve got a hotel under the sea there and a ski resort in the desert. It’s too far away from reality.”

Cheers!